A Wicked Show!

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Wednesday, November 28, was the return of one of the most loved musicals of all time, Wicked! This show dates back over 15 years since its debut on July 10th, 2003, in the Curran Theatre located in San Francisco. Wicked is a backstory to the movie, The Wizard of Oz, showing audiences the underlying reasons for the actions of the Wicked Witch of the West, and what made her so…. wicked.

Before she was given her grand title, this green, feisty young woman was a teen named Elphaba who was simply taking care of her handicapped sister. Because of her quirks, uncontrollable powers, and her emerald-green skin, she was an outcast since birth. This caused her to never grow proper social skills which forced Elphaba to literally love herself in her own skin.

After being sent with her sister, Nessarose, to wizard school, Elphaba was assigned to dorm with the most popular Ozian in town, Glinda (also known as Galinda, emphasis on the “Ga”!). Glinda was the privileged rich girl who always got her way, even at the wizard school. Elephaba’s school experience wasn’t the best, but she was later noticed by the Wizard of Oz due to her unexplainable powers! This sent her a one way ticket to The Emerald City with her now friend, Glinda. She then had to face traumatic experiences of lies, false accusations, and the powers of love. This in turn shaped Elphaba into the witch we all know today.

After watching this show, I understand why so many people fell in love with it. Wicked depicts how an intelligent young woman who didn’t fit in became this powerful witch, who in reality always had good intentions. The music is incredibly catchy and hard not to get it stuck in your head. In tandem the music was phenomenally sung by Beka Burnham, who played Glinda,and Jackie Burns, who played Elphaba. Together they were an amazing duo whose voices were perfectly in harmony and definitely knew how to get the crowd laughing hysterically.

Purchasing the tickets was easily done on Ticketmaster, but after witnessing it myself, there’s a little trick to get the cheapest possible seats. Although risky, you can wait till the day of the performance to get your spot. It is preferred to do this on less popular days because the theater needs to get rid of all its seats and will do almost anything to do so. When I reviewed the seats a week prior, they ran nearly $300 a pop, but after going back a few days later, they dropped to $150. Shocked, I immediately purchased the tickets. An hour before the show, my friend and I checked the Ticketmaster app once again and saw unsold seats originally $300 were being sold for $88, and were 6 rows ahead of us. Crazy but useful for the next time I attend!

Getting to the theater was easy thanks to our good ol’ Metro Public Transportation System. Only costing four dollars for a one way trip, I took the Metrolink train to Union Station and transferred to the Red Line located in the subway station, right underneath Union Station. This took me about 45 minutes which would usually take someone about an hour of drive time and a piece of someone’s patience in order to get through Los Angeles traffic. Once I got off at the Hollywood and Vine stop, and when I got above ground, the subway stop was surprisingly located right across the Pantages Theatre!

All in all this show is a must see experience even for non-avid musical watchers like me. This show really hits every emotion possible and is extremely memorable!